On a cold autumn afternoon, a trio of men in white lab coats walked briskly through Hersheypark.

No one knows for sure who they were or who they actually worked for.

JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-NewsVisitors to Hersheypark ride the Great Bear last year.

The only thing that this is known is where they were headed.

A few weeks earlier, several roller-coaster fanatics had started piecing together clues about Hersheypark’s new ride, code-named “Attraction 2012.”

On their website, keystonethrills.megabb.com, they poured over photos of strange survey markings that several of their members had noticed during visits during the summer.

The survey stakes appeared in an area of the park known as Comet Hollow and were the first clue that something big might be happening. The mystery deepened after park representatives presented initial planning documents — but few details — at a Derry Twp. meeting in August.

At the time, the park’s fans had more questions than answers, and every clue they gathered only seemed to lead to another dead end.

Three of the group’s members, Matt Meckley, Chris Cronrath and Alex Leair, decided a trip to the park was in order to continue their investigation.

They agreed online to meet at the fountain near the entrance to the park, near the statue of Milton Hershey, the park’s founder and namesake.

As they gathered to go on their first ride, the three men in lab coats cut through the crowd and approached them.

They identified themselves as employees of a roller-coaster think tank and asked Meckley, Cronrath and Lear a series of questions about various rides. After a few minutes, they handed the stunned fans a thick envelope and, as suddenly as they had appeared, the lab coat-clad men vanished into the crowd.

When the stunned enthusiasts opened up the envelope, they were greeted with a paper jigsaw puzzle.

They almost threw it away.

At first, they thought it was a flier or an advertisement. But then Cronrath saw a puzzle piece bearing the name “Ride Institute of Technology.”

None of them had heard of the institute.

When completed, the puzzle directed them to the Ride Institute of Technology’s website and bore a simple message for the trio: “see u in the spring ... game on!”

It was official: Hersheypark was up to something.

Park officials won’t answer that directly but acknowledge that they like to throw out teasers about big projects.

Now, four months later, the question remains: What?

A 12th roller coaster?

The Web page the three men were directed to appears innocuous enough: an image of the Ride Institute of Technology’s logo and a few paragraphs on the history of the research group.

The story ends with the promise of a major spring 2011 announcement and a link to an e-mail address.

There is no mention of Hersheypark or of Pennsylvania, for that matter.

But sandwiched inside, Meckley and his friends believe, are clues to what the park might be planning.

Take the logo — eleven white stars on a red shield, surrounding a griffin holding a 12th star, yellow in color.

It might not look like much, but Meckley points out several clues hidden in the image.

The 11 stars — Hersheypark has 11 roller coasters.

The 12th star might represent a 12th coaster.

The griffin depicted at the center could be The Griffon, a Busch Gardens “diving machine” constructed by Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers, a Swiss roller-coaster design firm.

Could Hershey be hinting at a B&M steel-frame diving coaster in Comet Hollow?

The idea makes coaster fans salivate. Diving coasters are characterized by high speeds, a 90-degree vertical drop and stadium-style seating. If Hersheypark were to construct one it would be only the third of its kind in the United States.

Meckley believes B&M might be involved, pointing to another clue in the final paragraph of the page.

“ ‘It’s been nearly 12 years since we’ve released a major new study...,’ “ Meckley read. “I’m thinking that phrase may be pointing to a possible B&M installation. ... When you break that down, it’s been 12 years since Great Bear was built. ... That was [the last coaster at Hersheypark designed] by B&M.”

Cronrath isn’t so certain.

Sure, he said, the story line on the Web page — about two scientists forming their own company — closely parallels B&M’s real-world history. But, he cautioned, “It could be a red herring.”

At first, the online community was worried the website itself might be a ruse, constructed by another fan to confuse the group. But an analysis of the programming code shows it is similar in style to the legitimate Hersheypark website.

There’s also the way that the ride institute appears to have located the three men during their trip to the park. The trio coordinated the trip via Facebook, with an open invitation for other people to come along.

A few days before they were to meet, an unknown individual using the moniker “Hersheypark fan” joined their group and asked where and when they would be gathering at the park. Cronrath said they later found out that the Facebook profile in question was registered using a Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Co. e-mail address.

They speculate that by using the persona, the park was able to pinpoint when they would arrive and were able to stage the ride institute’s question-and-answer session.

Tantalizingly, the only link away from the institute’s Web page is to e-mail an information address. Messages there are returned by an auto-response program, which states the group’s work requires the “use of an encryption key for all e-mail communications.”

That Cronrath said, has stumped everyone for the moment.

“I have no clue about the encryption key,” he said. “But I have a feeling that [the answer] is probably hidden in the text somewhere.”

There’s also one final clue hidden inside the Web page’s inner workings that points to Hersheypark.

It’s a line of programming code that for Hersheypark fanatics closes the door on any doubts they might have: code that reads: “PreProj: nAnT_L1v3s”

Could it be a cryptic reference to Nantimi, the near-legendary marketing game Hersheypark built around the 2007 announcement of its Fahrenheit coaster?

It’s not uncommon for amusement parks to play games with fans, often setting up fictitious websites or phony news reports to “leak” information.

On sites such as coasterbuzz.com, screamscape and thrillnetwork, roller-coaster fans pounce on the tiniest details, breaking them down to try and divine what various amusement parks are planning.

From the parks’ point of view, the secrecy isn’t just about driving buzz and keeping the faithful on the edge of their seats. Hersheypark said in a statement that like many businesses, the attractions industry competes for customers.

“As a result, we do our best to maintain any competitive advantage we can,” the park said.

And a major project, such as a coaster, can take up to five years to design and tweak before it is ready to be presented. In an industry that thrives on one-upsmanship, that makes secrecy a key component of a ride’s success.

But the park’s marketing team also seems to delight in developing elaborate marketing strategies to hook fans and build buzz ahead of major announcements.

Michael Hammer, who blogs about roller coasters on the amusement park industry website newsplusnotes.com, said Hersheypark demonstrated its cleverness during the campaign for its Fahrenheit coaster project, code-named Nantimi.

“Hersheypark definitely took it to the next level of viral marketing,” he said.

Nantimi was purported to be an Internet design company, linked to the then-unconfirmed Fahrenheit project. However, enthusiasts were quick to point out that Nantimi is an anagram of Intamin, one of the leading roller-coaster design firms in the world.

Hersheypark, through Nantimi, began leaving clues and puzzles across the Internet. It led fans to hidden photos and videos of the ride concept, code named “Tsunami.”

Fans, predictably, went crazy.

“They even involved theme park message boards as a way to stir interest, and I think it paid off well for them,” Hammer said. “It’s a cheap and relatively easy way to promote a new ride using the latest forms of social media.”

The park said Nantimi was it’s first real foray into viral marketing for an upcoming ride. It’s an idea that has evolved alongside the ever-expanding world of social media.

More and more, particularly in the last three years, amusement parks are engaging their fans and customers through social media.

Park officials, responding by e-mails, said that might come in the form of a game, a teaser campaign or simply an advanced or “exclusive” announcement of some exciting news.

“All of these strategies work to build loyalty, generate excitement and ultimately increase interest in visiting a park or attraction,” Hersheypark officials said.

Hersheypark appears to be building on the success of the Fahrenheit launch with Attraction 2012, leaking information about the project to its dedicated fans at Keystone Thrills to build excitement and buzz.

From there, the debate has spread to other industry websites, where everyone has his or her own ideas as to what Hersheypark is planning.

Most agree that it will be a roller coaster of some kind. Planning documents with Derry Twp. along with clues on the ride institute’s Web page seem to make that clear.

The debate among fans centers on the type of coaster and who will design it. Will it be a vertical-drop tower ride? Another Intamin-designed hypercoaster? Or, is B&M actually developing a new diving machine, like the Griffon, for the park?

For Meckley, Cronrath and company, spring can’t come soon enough.

Not only will it bring the start of another coaster season, but the park, through the Ride Institute of Technology, appears to have promised them some form of “major announcement.”

Roller-coaster pundits are trying to guess the next twist Hersheypark will introduce into the game:

Will the men in white lab coats make another appearance?

And what, exactly, is the purpose of the e-mail link on the Web page?

Until those questions are answered, the roller-coaster detectives at Keystone Thrills will stay glued to the edge of their seats — and keyboards — parsing and arguing over every minute detail that Hersheypark allows to leak.

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